This post is actually late in coming and I regret that I may have forgotten some of the key parts to it. I will do my best to remember everything from that week, as it was very exciting, but please forgive me if I don't.
Living on the ranch provides me with some very unique opportunities from time to time. Tonight I almost got to drive go-karts... yes almost. It started to rain and I didn't get a chance to. There is supposed to be a few more nights this week when we can drive, but who knows. Come on weather. This last weekend was the Wild Canyon Games and almost 1000 people came out to take part in events ranging from obstacle courses to triathalons. I bought a very cool fleece and some shoes that are, well, one of a kind.
A few weeks ago, the national guard decided that they wanted to use the camp for some training exercises. The camp owns a lot of land and much of the land is just empty. It doesn't take you long to hike out of camp and be able to see... nothing. Up behind my house there is a ridge that I can hike for 10 minutes and be able to see nothing but pasture land for miles around me. Some areas of the camp have abandoned buildings, and these were of special interest to the guard.
The first of three evening training missions took place at an abandoned warehouse about 6 miles from the main entrance of camp. The guys and I drove up and stood on a hill with about 30 other camp staff and their kids and waited... and waited... and finally. There was the beat of a rotating blade and into view flew a chinook helicopter. It flew less than 100 ft from the ground and up near the warehouses. It slowed to a hover and out of it dropped two repel lines that a squad of GI's dropped to the ground and proceeded to assault the buildings. There was live gun fire and two A-10's circling above. It was exciting, even though we couldn't really see anything, but all in all, who can really say they've watched a live military exercise.
The second night, you could see less, but the experience was closer. A squad of guys walked down the road on the other side of the "swamp" from where a group of us were standing. It's actually a creek, but there are all kinds of scums and other pond plants growing, so we call it the swamp. They swaggered in and did a mock assault on the old cafeteria. The pain bullet marks could still be seen two weeks later. I didn't watch this one because I didn't feel like climbing up the hill to get the better vantage point. Later in the night, however, I did watch a humvee drive around my house. It didn't do anything, but it was cool to see the vehicle all the same.
The last that we really saw anything happen wasn't even taking place near the camp. We were havning a Mark 2 fellowship night and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows on a fire. Just enjoying the company of each other when two chinook helicopters flew over our heads. I don't mean they were flying near. They flew directly over us. Some of us were excited, others scared, and Mark(my boss' hubby) got the smug look in his eye because it was his birthday and he got his own fly-over.
I've seen closer military craft and even been in them, but this made it just a little bit different. Some of the guys that we watched will be deployed into harms way and it made the experience very real that some of those guys might never come home alive. They volunteer to do what they do, and for a week, they let us be a part of it.
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